Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Harrison Utley, Jacorey Stewart & Austin Alexander Add to Kansas Jayhawks Stellar Class of 2024

Episode Date: June 13, 2023

Lance Leipold and the Kansas Jayhawks hosted a huge visitors weekend in Lawrence and saw some notable repercussions with three commitments already coming out in offensive lineman Harrison Utley, linebacker Jacorey Stewart and cornerback Austin Alexander. KU continues to shine in the Class of 2024 with one of their best ever recruiting classes. How all players will impact the roster and just how loaded of a class is this already?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege and when you enter promo code, LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas football has been cleaning up in the class of 2024. Three new commits from over the weekend and Monday with Harrison Utley, Ja'Cory Stewart, and Austin Alexander. This is developing into one of the best recruiting classes that KU has ever had with Lance Leipold and company. Let's discuss on today's edition of the show. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m.

on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can like and subscribe to the show also on YouTube. And on today's edition of the show, KU football had some big visitors in town over the weekend, and they are starting to clean up with some commitments. This is becoming one of the best recruiting classes that KU has been able to land in a decade plus and maybe even of the like recruiting rankings era I know that sounds like hyperbole but it's really not we'll get into

why on this edition of the show but first I want to talk a little bit about you know some of the players that they just added and uh first things first what will go just I guess chronologically at least I think these are chronologically. Might not be. I forget who committed first with Harrison Utley or Ja'Cory Stewart. Then Austin Alexander was the Monday recruit. So we'll kind of start off with what happened over the weekend, what they're getting long-term, and then just what overall it means for the class of 2024.

So first up, Harrison Utley. So KU had this big group of commit or recruits in general coming in over the weekend i mean i think it was like double digit guys and it's a big recruiting weekend uh ku seemed to impress a lot of them and there are even some that maybe didn't commit to ku but in the aftermath now ku becomes a serious player for them or maybe ku becomes the front runner for some other kids who didn't even commit this weekend that now could be good commits down the road. They seem to clean up and do very well over these visits,

and at the very least, to get three commits off of one recruiting weekend, and on top of that, you're talking about two guys who are top 1,000 recruits and another guy who hasn't been ranked on the 24-7 composite to tell you where he is nationally, but based on the offer list, could be a top 1,000 recruit, is remarkable work for KU football and what Lance Leipold is doing. I say all the time with KU football, this isn't Alabama where you're looking at all your players being like, oh, can they all be top 300 recruits in the country? At Kansas, if you get top 1,000 recruits, that's usually a big enough deal, right? And you get top 500, it's an even bigger deal than that. So Harrison Utley was the first one to commit. He was an offensive lineman, 6'3", 280 pounds. He's from Norman, Oklahoma.

So I guess you went into OU's backyard and got him. I don't think he had an offer though from Oklahoma. So I don't think this is a situation where it's like you out-recruited Oklahoma with the hometown kid. But who knows, maybe that gives him extra, you know, chip on his shoulder to be like, I'm going to play against Oklahoma. Well, I guess by the time he comes in, Oklahoma will be in the SEC. But you know what I mean that, hey, I have a school right in my own backyard. They didn't recruit me. And we have that chip on their shoulder. He's a three-star recruit.

He is a top 100 offensive lineman in the country. He, uh, just barely, I think he was nine 96 on the 24, seven composite. So just barely snuck inside the top 1000 nationally. Uh, you look at the offers list, uh, not going to be a ton to jump off the page. Like you might see Harvard and air force on there. There was an offer from Iowa state. So you're talking another power five and big 12 level kid. It's interesting though,

because I think this is a kid where this is somebody that KU trusts and trusted their internal scout of the kid. And maybe some other schools don't know what to do with them. And I think part of that might just be the size six foot three to 80. I think KU likes the kid. I think KU, I believe he gets good grades and everything. KU thinks he's a smart player and they can develop him into something, kind of be a diamond in the rough, so to speak.

So that's with Utley. And then again, top 1,000 recruit and everything. And then you have Ja'Cory Stewart, who is a linebacker. He is a 6'210 linebacker. So, again, kind of in the same ilk as Utley, where it's like, well, it probably doesn't really have tackle size, like maybe a little bit undersized there. Stewart just 6'210 pounds.

Maybe that led to him being under-recruited a little bit more than he could have been just based on the talent and the production. He did have some really good offers. I'm not trying to say he wasn't recruited heavily. I'm just saying that if you make him 6'2", 225, does he become a four- or five-star recruit, right? So he's from Alpharetta, Georgia. He is a three-star prospect.

He is a top 100 linebacker. He is currently not in the 24-7 composite for the national rankings. 24-7 has their ranking on him uh but all the other sites need to put that together so that the composite grade can kind of come out there um but yeah i i tend to trust 24-7 rankings uh but here's the offer list appalachian state which has been you know one of the best group of five programs since they've uh kind of moved up from the fds level uh georgia tech indiana missouri mississippi state nc state ole miss texas a&m tulane ucf that is a very good list of offers a lot of power five offers there ucf a big 12 offer there

um to make 10 schools in their sec schools in there right that's a really good offer list clearly i would not be surprised if even though he's not uh in the top 1000 right now because of the 24-7 composite not having all the other ones if he didn't's not in the top 1,000 right now because of the 24-7 composite, not having all the other ones, if he didn't end up in that discussion. And then you have Austin Alexander. He was the commit that announced to KU on Monday. He is a 6'1", 165-pound corner from Chicago, Illinois.

He's a four-star recruit, a top 40 corner on the composite. If you look at 24, it's interesting. The 24-7 rankings only has him as a four-star recruit a top 40 corner on the composite if you look at 24 it's interesting the 24-7 rankings only has him as a three-star whereas the composite has him as a four-star but in the composite he's a top 40 corner nationally in the 24-7 rankings even though he's a lower star he's a top 30 corner nationally so kind of interesting the the balance between the two but he is number 411 nationally on the composite so he comes in and he becomes ku's highest recruit of this class it was previously red martel the running back from california now alexander comes in and he takes over that top spot in the recruiting

rankings he becomes one of you know the better uh players that ku has been able to recruit and anytime you land those top 500 obviously clearly not you know the highest guy ku's ever had i mean shoot just a couple years ago devin neal was higher and stuff but um he had offers from like every big 10 school like you go to his offer list i mean you're seriously like wisconsin indiana michigan michigan state right like you go across the board you're looking at a bunch of big 10 schools uh you also have usc in there i guess they're going to be a big big 10 school now. Iowa State, Duke, among others who offered him, as you would imagine, with a three, four-star

corner in the case of Alexander, who is top 500 nationally. So, very good haul that KU brought in with these three players. I want to talk more in-depth about what they're bringing to the table, what their future could be with the program, what it means for the class of 2024 and KU football as a whole.

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Let's start with Harrison Utley. Again, Utley, the offensive lineman, 6'3", 280 pounds. He is smart. He's, you know, I think you look at the size not being 6'5", 6'6", like projects more to being an interior offensive lineman maybe you would project him more to be a guard as i mentioned i think the talk is that smart kid with good grades um usually if you're talking about a smart player as an offensive lineman who maybe isn't as big as some of these others maybe you could profile into being a center

right um you're gonna be looking for you, constantly on the offensive line, you're looking to bring in multiple every class, right? You just want to replenish. There are enough guys that play there. There are enough guys that start there that you're constantly wanting to bring in more talent. And you look at the interior of the offensive line. Dominic Poonie is in his last year. Mike Novitski is in his last year. That's two interior offensive linemen. Then you look at Michael Ford and Spencer Lavelle. I believe both of them have two years left of play for KU. So then come, you know, 2025, you have now at that point departed Poonie, Novitski, Ford, and Lavelle.

And obviously KU can hit the transfer portal, and I'm sure will hit the transfer portal to bring on more offensive linemen as they've kind of done this offseason with, you know, Lavelle or Baines in the previous semester or Logan Brown, right? But you look at constantly needing those interior offensive linemen. And of course, you have Armage Reed Adams, who I think could have three more years. Dre Dorian, maybe he plays tackle, maybe plays guard, but I think he can have three more years. Kobe Baines, again, he can play guard or tackle.

Nolan Gorchika can kind of play all along the line. All those guys could have three more years. Kobe Baines, again, he can play guard or tackle. Nolan Gorchika can kind of play all along the line. All those guys could have three more years. But you want to consistently have that next wave of development ready, right? And whether that's current guys they have on the roster, like a Kyle Farks who's a redshirt freshman, or Joe Kraus who's a redshirt sophomore, or DK Stearns who's got multiple years left, you want to constantly have that next wave of player ready and constantly have that next class getting ready whether it's getting their

body ready getting their you know it's the mental game ready from understanding the playbook understanding the system this is a position where you're constantly trying to have next up available and be locked and loaded for as long down the road as you possibly can so it's not easy for me to be like well yeah I think you look at it and Utley would be, right, I just named so many guys. Utley will be the starting center in 2025, 2026, whatever it is. I don't know, but I think he projects to be interior offensive lineman, right, center guard, and you're just going to continue to develop

these offensive line and see what works out and, you know, try to get the most competitive offensive line out there that you possibly can. But maybe he comes in, red shirts maybe in year one work on whatever needs to be worked on obviously 280 pounds he's not somebody who comes in like sometimes you'll see defensive linemen come in and they're like if it's a defensive end he's like 220 pounds or if it's a defensive tackle he's 250 pounds and you know they're k who's gonna have to spend the first year or two you're in the program working your body up to D1 level, right? And that'll be the case here for Utley.

They'll try to get him up beyond 280. I'm sure they'll try to get him up into, you know, past three bills, whether it's 300, 315, somewhere in that range. But having 280, I think, gives you a little bit better start for where that needs to go. And then maybe you're talking about, yeah, he can compete for the two deep by 2025 or 2026 and maybe he becomes a starter for you at some point along the way um like i said you're just kind of adding numbers and adding as much competition and as much potential that you can go for on the offensive line and when you're ku you're looking at a couple different things right if you're not going to be getting the five-star guys, you've got to be looking for certain traits that you're looking for,

guys who are smart, guys who are tough, guys who maybe have the frame, but you need to fill out the weight. There are certain things that you're looking to help fill in the gap with, and I think Utley kind of classifies as that guy who is smart and tough and should be able to come in and I think fit exactly what KU is looking for on the interior of that offensive line down the road. Then we get to Stewart. With Ja'Cory Stewart, obviously, you know, bit of an undersized linebacker, really good athlete though. So as a junior, he had 90 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, had five sacks, three forced fumbles, couple

interceptions. His team made a playoff run in Georgia's highest classification, so really high level of high school football. But a really good athlete. He becomes the second linebacker to join the class for KU. If you remember, they added Jonathan Kamara, I don't know, a week or two ago. And with Kamara, the idea is that he can play anywhere. They can play him at safety, defensive end, whatever. But it seems like Kamara, the idea is that he could play anywhere. They could play him at safety, defensive end, whatever.

But it seems like Kamara, the idea is to profile him into the Hawk position. And with Stewart, he is a little bit undersized. He is a really good athlete. It wouldn't be crazy if he eventually became a Hawk player as well. But I think the idea for him is more so going to be bring him in, maybe add some weight to him, get him up to 225, you know, maybe 230, and then have him be a part of a linebacker duo with Logan Brantley. And I think ideally that's what you're looking at. Maybe, you know, you come to 2026. So by 2026, you would have a either redshirt junior

or a senior version of Logan Brantley, who was their top, their only linebacker recruit in the class of 2023. Then here here in 2024 that would mean by 2026 that both Kamara and Stewart would be either juniors or redshirt sophomores at that point depending if they get redshirted or not and so by then maybe you get to a point where those are your three starting linebackers right like Kamara's at the Hawk and uh Brantley and and Stewart are your other two starting linebackers. But I'll say what's interesting specifically, I think, about both Brantley and Stewart. And I think it gives you a little tell about what KU is going after. Like I mentioned, with KU, it's not KU basketball where KU basketball is getting the top 20 commits in the country, right?

And they're basically able to be like, yeah, we want everything. With KU, you're not going to get the players who have everything are going to Alabama and Georgia. And so you have a kid here who's only six foot low, 200 pounds at the linebacker position and needs to add, you know, some of that weight and stuff to his body. That's the case of Logan Brantley, too, like low 200 pounds. They're going to look to add to his body. But you have a case here with both Stewart and Brantley of guys who are really athletic guys who or you know are known as being really good competitors or had really good production at the high school level that you feel like they can turn into something special for you if you just get them into your developmental

system and I would throw Stewart right in the ring in that regards now uh what it means the position like with offensive line with Utley you're probably going to continue that offensive line like I said you you can't really ever have enough of those, especially with the waves that you're constantly trying to develop down the road. A linebacker, though, with two linebackers in this class, one last class. I wouldn't be shocked if they're done at this point, but who totally knows, I guess. And then the last one you have coming in here is Alexander. He's obviously a four-star recruit, a good athlete, as you would expect, only 165 pounds. So kind of the same thing with a lot of these players.

You're going to bring him in and probably going to, you know, try to add weight to him and everything. Now, the weight thing didn't stop Kobe Bryant or Mello Dotson from, you know, playing early in their KU careers or even playing at lightweights last year. So Alexander is more the case of somebody that maybe he could hit the field in the early going. You fast forward to next year in 2024,

Kalen Girvin's going to have graduated by that point. What happens if Kobe Bryant goes pro at the end of this year? He was first team All-Big 12 last year. What happens if he has another first team All-Big 12 season this year? Gets even better, and he ends up being like a day two NFL draft pick, and he decides to go off into the NFL draft. And then at that point, you still have some good corners on the roster, right? At that point, you'd have, I think, Mello Dotson back for his final year in 2024. You'd have

the possible emergence of some of the recruits that you've been kind of building up. You have Demarius McGee, who you brought over from LSU, right? You have some other good players, but if Alexander comes in, like there would be a chance that he's getting on the field right away as a true freshman at a position that unlike linebacker or lineman yes it'd be nice if you had that weight but again look to kobe bryant and mellow dots and be like well those guys have played even though they're slender just because they're good enough that it wouldn't be crazy for him to play early on um obviously if you're ku you'd prefer to you know develop a good enough system there where you're not having to play

people unless you absolutely like they're that good and i think that's what they are developing but i mean with alexander like that he's your top recruit coming in again you could be losing some players but then again what if kobe bryant comes back for senior year and mellow dotson's back and you have to mary's mcgee now he has a year to kind of sit and learn and add weight to that body and then he's a future stud at the corner position for a KU that could very much happen. KU obviously is in a position where, you know,

with DBS, it never hurts to kind of in the same way of offensive line, bring in as many as pot. Well, not as many, obviously there is always a limit and KU has certain numbers they want to be at with the different scholarships and different positions and stuff, but that's a position where you could always move somebody to safety and you can kind of

work things around. And sometimes you get really good athletes there. So I'd imagine they're still in on, you know, defensive backs and stuff moving forward. All right, let's finish things up here. Overall thoughts on now the class of 2024, because it is burgeoning. It is looking really good so far for KU to this point in time with Locked on Jayhawks. Finishing things up with Locked on Jayhawks, talking about the overall class of 2024.

We'll get back later this week. I was originally, this episode was going to come out on Wednesday. We've kind of gone to a three-show-a-week schedule here for the summer with the offseason. But with all these recruits wanting to get something out to you now. So we'll get either a deep dive on a possible KU basketball transfer target or maybe some stuff about Jamari McDowell and who's going to win the last rotation spot.

We've got a lot planned for you in the coming weeks here, so it should be a lot of fun. But overall, the class of 2024 now for KU, it features six top 1,000 commits. Alexander adds to that. It features six top 1000 commits. Alexander adds to that. He becomes your top rated guy. Utley adds to that. So you have Alexander, you have red Martel running back, Isaiah Marshall, quarterback,

Andre Gibson, cornerback, Carson Broon, tight end. And then you have Utley on the offensive line. That's six guys. And you have a chance for it to work both ways. Like when it's all said and done, when your recruiting rankings are finalized, when they're finished, obviously a lot of this could adjust.

A lot of these players, I mean, these players are going to be playing their senior year of high school, right? So if they have a good year, maybe they move up. If they have a bad year, maybe they move down. And that could work both ways. Like you have Gibson, Broon, and Utley are all ranked between 946 and 996.

So there's a chance that would just slight rankings change with just players jumping over them. Or if they fall just a tad, that they end up not top 1,000 recruits. And then this stat that I'm talking about kind of goes to moot, even though at the same point in time, would there be that big of a difference if they're ranked 950 versus 1030? Probably not. But nonetheless, just for the sake of it, we just put a cutoff there. And sometimes numbers are arbitrary, but sometimes those arbitrary cutoffs are important. So, you know, that could change. It could go down to four.

On the flip side, those guys could maintain their ranking and you could actually add more. Jonathan Kamara and Corey Stewart are not currently ranked on the 24-7 composite because some of the other sites haven't ranked them yet. And in the case of like specifically with Stewart, I read off the offer list. Ole Miss, Texas A&M, like would it shock you if he was a top thousand recruit? And then this number goes up to seven. So there are ways that that number can dish around. But as of right now, six top 1000 commits for Kansas, uh, they had five top 1000 commits in the class of 2023. So you've now bested that and keep in mind, this is with KU only having eight commits right now. It's not the KU is going to bring on a class of like 25 high school kids. I think it seems like

the staff is pretty content settling somewhere between, I don't know, like 13 to 17 high school commits in a given year, and they're going to use the rest on the transfer portal. So it's not that they're going to have a long way to go with recruiting, but that still leaves you. Let's say they bring in 15 kids. You're still only about halfway there, and you already have these numbers, meaning there's a lot more you could even accomplish. But you've already surpassed what you did last year with six top 1000 recruits. And prior to last year, six would have been the most top 1000 commits that KU has landed in a recruiting class since the 2020 recruiting class, which was led by Kobe Bryant and Lawrence Arnold. Then if you want to go back to the last time KU landed seven top 1000 commits in the same class, it was the 2014 class. A lot of those guys didn't

totally pan out. You did have Daniel Wise though, who clearly did pan out. And I kind of point back to that and just be like, yeah, that was probably just like a David Beatty thing. And then it also gives you now, because you're now compounding really good commits, really good high school players coming in again. He was not, you know, adding 25 kids in every class, but if they're adding 15 and they're getting a lot of quality ones, and then you're supplanting it with the transfer portal, that's even better. And now they have 11 top 1000 commits with the six this year and the five

that they had last year over the last two recruiting classes. Again, you don't know who's going to stay committed, where these guys are going to end up in the rankings. Will there be more? Will there be less? But as of now, that would give you 11 top 1000 commits over the last two recruiting classes with

2023 and 2024. That would be the most that KU has landed in a two year span in over a decade. It was either 2011, 2012 or 2012, 2013. I couldn't remember. So over a decade that they've been able to bring in that wedge of talent. And when you look at some of the past times that KU has brought in that talent, like 2014 or 2011, 2012, it's kind of fallen on deaf ears because you haven't had the coaching, the development to really rile that up. Now you have the coach who's good at developing it. You have the coaching continuity. You have the scheme. You have the current success with the program that not only are you bringing in as much talent as you have in any year in a decade plus over the last few years in recruiting with KU but you have the

best developer that you've had in that time span and I I don't think like I I almost thought that we figured out with Lance Leipold like the recruiting is not going to be great it's going to be all about development well the development is happening but the recruiting has been a lot better than I think a lot of us would have thought and that is really impressive and really important for what lance leipold is doing when you already know he is a good developer and does a lot of these things well when you're adding in even better players now that's only going to raise your floor it's only going to raise your ceiling as a team and as a program all right that'll do it for this episode of locked on jayhawks we'll be back later this week uh we'll see if if anything more pops up news related otherwise

might get into some deep dives on a transfer portal targets for KU basketball. This has been locked on Jayhawks. You can find us anywhere. You get any of your podcasts. You can find us on YouTube as well. Have a good rest of your day. See you next time with LOJ later.